Former goalkeeper of Liverpool Jerzy Dudek has admitted that at the end of his Anfield days he was extremely eager to quit.
“Pepe was a nice man, but in a moment where I felt like I was at the height of my success, Rafa had recruited a new goalkeeper,” Dudek told FourFourTwo. “I said Rafa that the 2006 World Cup was on the horizon and I wanted to play football. Cologne was concerned but a few days before the window was locked, they called and asked, ‘Why doesn’t Rafa even speak to us?’ I was confused- I thought it was all decided.”
He continued, “The following day, after training, I walked up to him. He said, ‘We have offered a loan package, so you’re so valuable to us. They try to give us £800,000, so what if Reina has an injury? I can’t throw £800,000 into a bag to bring it between the goalposts.’”
By then, he was so eager to leave that he considered punching boss Rafa Benitez, just so that Liverpool would have a reason to fire him:
“I had this mad idea then – ‘I guess I’m just going to hit him in the nose’ This evil whisper in my head told me they’d let me go to Cologne if I hit Rafa.’”
